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Kers is an energy recovery system. The flywheel configuration uses a CVT (continuously variable transmission) which has specific limits to its range of operation.

A Infinitely variable transmission has a lowest "gear" ratio but no highest ratio, there fore the definition of infinite range of operational ratios.

Comparing Kers to a IVT hydraulic hybrid, would be limited to the Launch assist hydraulic hybrid.

Kers works well in specific situations where there are opportunities to recover and reapply energy otherwise lost.

The other hybrid advantage not shared by IC-electric types is the ability to pulse and glide the vehicle with the hybrid components.

This requires very high efficiency in energy conversion and the least possible number of changes in the state of the energy.

My first patent was using the engine as a flywheel and a CVT that would allow the flywheel mode of the engine to apply power to the wheels, even when the flywheel-engine was consuming no fuel.

This is the crucial threshold of the breakthrough in hybrids, not yet realized, to truly be able to pulse and glide the engine to the storage and then to the wheels at exactly the rate of power application that is necessary to maintain a constant speed.

This has always been the crucial component and it must be properly understood.

When I was testing my brother's 90 Honda Civic, I drove 9 miles and averaged 30 MPH. It took 18 minutes per cycle, but the engine was only running 4 minutes 15 seconds.

That's 23.6% of the total time in motion.

In the INNAS link in my "Hydraulic Hybrid revisited" thread they ran the engine 11.9% of the time the vehicle was being driven on the test loop.

Operating the engine only within the range of it's highest BSFC is the key to breaking the "sound barrier" of fuel mileage in vehicles. We hypermilers demonstrate that P&G is the way to get to much higher mileages, especially at lower speeds.

Separating the power application to the wheels from the power generation of the engine is the crucial component.

Think of the storage of energy as a type of shock absorber that allows huge fluctuations of energy application and energy recovery as the shocks on your car absorb irregularities in the road.

Can Kers do that?

Yes if you integrated it into a vehicle and made it so you could pulse the engine and store some of the power in the Kers to be applied after the engine was shut off, while maintaining vehicle speed at a constant rate.
You would be storing the energy in the flywheel that you store in the vehicle when you increase the speed with your pulse.

How does it compare to an IVT hydraulic hybrid.

My best estimate would be they would be comparable.

I am not sure if the Kers system would be as flexible as the IVT HH, and the range of regeneration would not be as broad, since an IVT can regenerate to 0 vehicle speed and the CVT Kers would still require some brakes activity, which could be totally replaced by the IVT HH, at least by my design.

Another factor is cost, which for a Formula 1 car is one thing but for a practical cheap passenger car is another situation totally.

Right now the advocates of HH drives are trying to implement them in vehicles that are large and have a heavy cycle of stop and go operation, like garbage trucks, and other short haul delivery vehicles.

My design could be used on a bicycle. You could charge the bicycle by using it as an exercise machine. Charge the accumulator fully and you would have a reserve of something like 150 horsepower seconds of energy in reserve.

If the system was efficient enough you could sustain a significantly higher speed over a considerable distance with human power alone. If that was not sufficient you could add a small pressure washer engine and pump for even higher sustained speeds.

Imagine this to understand what I am trying to explain. How fast can you push a small light car? Maybe 7 MPH. Now think of how fast you could push it if there was a conveyor belt that moved you at the same speed you had the car moving after the first push. 10 MPH? 15 MPH? 20 MPH?

In other words whatever speed you got it to you could stop pushing and you would be travelling at the same speed as the car.

Thats the key to all machines and efficiency, to make the most out of the energy that you apply. I think a human powered aero bicycle with a hh drive train could average over 45 MPH for 20 miles, using the reserve energy in the accumulator to boost you up to speed but pedalling constantly to keep the pressure levels in the accumulator as high as possible.

it's the reverse of the pulse and glide that runs your overpowered car less than 20% of the time when you P&G.

Like the Gossamer Albatross, the first human powered airplane to travel 45 miles, the pilot could provide enough power to climb to 500 feet and get a short rest while the plane flew on in a glide.

In the bike example you could pack 30 minutes of recharge in the accumulator then 30 minutes of pedalling effort and you would have almost twice the sustained energy you could provide without the reserve.

It will be a game changer, worldwide, when you can transport yourself 40 miles a day without any energy consumption. If you are an old fart like me then carry a battery and electric motor, or the above mentioned pressure washer pump.

Present hybrids can be beat by a launch assist axle and a start stop alternator, for a lot less money than a hybrid system. That will happen within the next few years. The full hydraulic hybrid will follow within a decade and the oil producers will see their monopoly end.

regards
Mech